I don't gainsay the danger or destructive power of the man. I still remember Rick Hertzberg's quote just after 9/11 that the attacks were as brilliant as they were evil. (This is from memory: so I may have the precise words wrong. But he well captured the way in which the horror and evil of the attacks were matched by their diabolical ingeniusness.) But as an articulator of a vision, an expounder of "Islamofascism," or whatever the new trademarked word is now, he's about as coherent and comprehensible as a 9th tier blogger or one of those whacks sitting on a stoop in Union Square talking about fascism and Texas oil barons before they get overcome by the shakes or decide to start collecting more aluminum cans.

If my predictive powers are still working right, I'm sure I'll catch flack for taking such a mocking attitude toward this man who has so much American blood on his hands. But this, I think, is only the flip side of the vaunted perch we insist on giving him, a insistence that is a paradoxical part of Bushism. They are tacit partners in creating the world in which we now live.

“Flak” is WW II airman’s slang for shells being fired at you in the air, so to catch a lot of flak is to feel in danger of being shot down. However, most civilians these days have never heard of “flak,” so they use “flack” instead, which originally meant “salesman” or “huckster.” You need to worry about this only if you’re among old-time veterans.

When you're showing off your expertise about fighting a war, you ought to get your war imagery right. A flack is a press agent. Hacks -- "writer[s] hired to produce routine or commercial writing" -- know more about flacks and not so much about flak, but they need to try not to let it show.

I don't know about you, but when I'm reading a judicial opinion and run into the phrase "It cannot be gainsaid..." I feel a sense of revulsion... almost dread. Why is the judge (or clerk) writing like this? Why the sudden desire to sound like a fusty old gasbag? I start mistrusting everything....

Supreme Court justices have only used the word 113 times in the entire history of the Court, but more than 70% of these were since 1950. It was only used 18 times before 1900. (There are also 59 occurrences of "gainsay.") I mention these details because they bear out my suspicion that this is sheer pretension, a modern person's idea of how to sound like you came from the 19th century. I'm irked that the modern Justices ever affect a 19th century tone, and I'm further irked that they lack an ear for it.

So when a blogger -- who has so much more reason to write in a crisp, modern style -- uses that expression, it means so much more. It is beyond sheer pretension, beyond fusty old gasbaggage, beyond revolting and irksome. It's not surprising that Marshall goes on to write in a weird pseudo-archaic style with locutions like "he well captured the way" and "the world in which we now live" and jocose, verbose images like "a 9th tier blogger or one of those whacks sitting on a stoop in Union Square talking about fascism and Texas oil barons before they get overcome by the shakes or decide to start collecting more aluminum cans."

And by the way, I can understand slamming bloggers, but the assumption that there are tiers of bloggers is awfully hierarchical, especially coming from Marshall, who is, of course, a first tier blogger. Why the snobbery? Plenty of bloggers with small audiences write very well and convey subtle thinking. How liberal-minded is it to look down on people with less traffic? And what sort of liberal sneers about mentally ill street people?

Then there's: "the flip side of the vaunted perch we insist on giving him, a insistence that is a paradoxical part of Bushism." I like to think that a "vaunted perch" is a fish that you brag about. Feel free to start a blog -- a 9th tier blog -- and call it "The Vaunted Perch." And put a fish in the banner:

I mean I can picture a fish -- either a highly praised or a viciously reviled fish -- flipped over. But if it's a perch of the sort normally found clutched by birds' feet...

... then flipping it over... what would that do? Come to think about it, fish of the perch type looks about the same flipped over. If you want to flip over a fish and have it make a distinctive difference, you should start with a flounder:

And try not to flounder through your next post. Don't founder on your own "ingeniusness" -- whatever that is.

And which Union Square is he talking about? Because the one in New York certainly doesn't have any "stoops". Perhaps it once had stoops. But the only people who would remember when it had stoops, now stoop over their walker.

Sorry to have to correct everyone but "flack" is derived from "flak." It's a misspelling of "flak" that has crept into common usage.

PR people (I used to be one for many years) fall into two categories: Drummers and Flak-catchers. Drummers get attention for the client. Flak-catchers deflect negative attention (i.e. "flak") away from the client.

Drummers has gone out of common usage. Flak-catchers has been shortened to "flak," and for whatever reason the letter 'c' was added.

PR people generally don't like to be called 'flacks,' but I embraced the term.

The Democrats do tend to shift positions on Bin Laden. Today, he's an irrelevant, deranged crank. But until recently, he was the guy we were supposed to be pursuing instead of fighting in Iraq. I believe Obama wants our entire Iraq force to relocate to Pakistan to find him. If he's just a crazy nutball, why would this be the right thing to do with our military?

In her early teens, Roberta Flack so excelled at classical piano that Howard University awarded her a full music scholarship. She matriculated at Howard University at the age of 15, making her one of the youngest students ever to enroll there. She eventually changed her major from piano to voice, and became an assistant conductor of the university choir. Her direction of a production of Aida received a standing ovation from the Howard University faculty.

I think Marshall's right about bin Laden's irrelevance. That's the main reason I'm not bothered that we haven't caught him yet. Even if we NEVER catch him -- well, that will offend my sense of justice, but it won't have a big impact on our security.

That said, when a person ranting like a "9th tier blogger" sounds just like a member of the antiwar movement, that kind of says it all.

The Patreus report is all the marbles for Al Qaeda. A bad report would mean a pull-out from Iraq. A good report means, America will be in Iraq for the unforseeable future. Al Qaeda has to know this, which is why they must be throwing their total effort. Civilian deaths are down in Iraq and terrorists are being caught before they can cause damage (as in Germany). Worst of all (for them) they have been unable to overshadow the positve news stories coming out about the surge. This could be Al Qaeda's last chance to win the war. They have 7 days.

This was in fact Osama's original plan. To get us to invade afghanistan. The invasion would mobilize jihadists from all over the arab world to come to afghanistan - just like they did when the Soviets invaded. Afghanistan is one of the best places in the world to wage guerrilla war.

Iraq ruined all of these plans. Now Bin Ladin's jihad army is being liquidated in Iraq. Fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq is much easier than fighting them in Afghainstan.

"Flack" is a perfectly acceptable variant of "flak," and has been for a long, long time, not just according to the online dictionaries. Even my ancient 1962 edition of Merriam-Webster recognizes "flack" as an acceptable spelling for the word you think should only ever be spelled as "flak."

Plus, we already had this debate when Obama used the word "flack" and John McCain tried to make the same inane point about it.

John Stodder said..."I think the rightwing bloggers are having too much of a gay old time with this tape. The Democrats don't deserve the guilt by association with his comments."

If bin Laden did a video proclaiming the importance of school vouchers, cutting taxes and banning gay marriage, what do you think the leftosphere would do? When the enemy endorses your candidate for President and then endorses your strategyand most of your issues, that's your first clue that maybe you're on the wrong side.

I say, if the cap fits - "it impugns not only the patriotism, but also the character and intelligence of literally millions of daily participants in the progressive blogosphere" - wear it.

I once got kicked off a consulting job for laughing at a senior VP. I couldn't help it. The firm was having real problems with a competitor and the Senior VP made a rant about how the company was like a ship headed for the rocks (they all love the metaphor).

Then, as he was looking at only getting 2 million istead of 3 that year unless profits turned around, he went into a motivational rant. How the firm could flounder. How floundering would be bad. Someone said he agreed completely with everything the Senior VP said, but the word was "founder".The SVP corrected him, saying that the firm was already "well-founded", he was there to stop the floundering. Then he asked if anyone supported floundering and started going around the room asking who was a "flounderer" as some people's faces went red with effort not to laugh. Then he asked me what our consultants thought of a company that accepted a flounder.

I said that would be a seafood company. That set the laughter off and next thing I knew, security was escorting me off premises.

Word of the Flounder Meeting became local legend. Versions a couple of years later had the Senior VP, since then fired, lunging across the table to choke a subordinate that made the seafood crack. Another had the fired consultant working in a Boston fish market.. Another that the consultant's bonus that year from his firm was a gift-wrapped flounder. Another was the consultant was "breaded & fried" for saying "floundering". Truth was my boss was pissed, but said he probaly would have whacked that softball, too. And the "flounder" stories actually got us the competitor's to toss us business.

And I did get a gift "fresh fluke" wrapped up from a fellow associate, and a year of people saying at lunch that I loved flounder...

And I think as a kid I myself used "floundering" describing when my team was getting beat up..

You are a fool Ann (a feminist fool,of course) for you constantly remove my accurate analyses of the world situation today and what we can and should do to save the human race from immanent destruction. It must be that,because you are a woman,you cant face the facts of hard reality today (see below). And its an awful shame.

Tom

As posted at Ann Altman's blog ( she is a Univ. of Wisconsin Law School Professor):

tc said... ( on 9-7-07):

You know,Ann,

I disagree with Osama. But some of what he says is right on point. The USA is in near-imminant danger of total destruction. But not for his reasons ( and Islam is not the answer,as he claims ). No,it is because of feminism that the US is in such peril...see below.

Tom

2) tc said... (on 9-6-07): Ann,

See below how I think and feel about homosexuality,lesbianism, the type of lunacy that "sex-change" connotes but,mostly,about how I detest feminism. And how and why I think that women should really come to the realization that they'd be far happier,contented,fulfilled...if they stayed home and had and raised children...as they are meant to do.

Tom

( As an aside, over the past month,I've had to get a new email address 7 times. And tonight such was necessary too after I sent out this most recent edition [ # 413 ]. Now I'm not any sort of conspiracy theorist but it makes me wonder if -because I am anti-feminist,anti-lesbian,anti-gay...and anti-liberal (without being a right-wing conservative,of course)- my email is being closely monitored,watched and censored by various people,groups... For it is indeed my intention to change the world in ways that many people and groups do not approve of. On the other hand, if we dont change,the human race itself might become extinct in the next few years. Thusfar,my blogspot ( jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com ) has not been affected and I post all my stuff there as well. AND please forgive me for the duplicate copies that some people may receive,for they are on duplicate lists and it may take a bit of time. But I hope to get my lists [ more than 500 recipients] fixed soon. For those who have been on my email list for years, my problems began at about # 400. And all of those editions can be found on my blog as noted above. )

Preliminarily,I mention my call to Vinny Restiano (who is running for Yonkers Mayor this year) at the Hezi Arris call-in radio show on WVOX ( New Rochelle,N.Y.) on Tuesday,9-4-07. It went something like this: Hezi answered my phone call and I said " Vinny,Tom Courtney here.With re- gard to your very real observation of Yonkers schools as being sorely lacking in teaching skills,maybe the teachers cant teach because they're forced to believe that boys and girls,men and women,are the same/are equal -when we know they aren't ". At that point Hezi said " Cut him off ". But not before I said " And the same applies to police-minority relations in Yonkers ". And,herein,I intend to show how my general observation that feminism is the cause of the general decline (and possibly near-imminent destruction) of the hu- man race applies in Yonkers. On 9-2-07,the Journal News printed a story about how the U. S. Justice Dept. was investigating the Yonkers Police Dept. on charges of police brutality against its minority citizens - in other words,poor black people living on welfare in Yonkers' welfare projects,mainly in the south-west/Getty Square vicinity. These people complain that they have been " mistreated "," disrespected "......" for years ". Some say that the police ( and this observation has been applied nationwide,to all police forces ) do not " understand the ' culture ' of the black community ", but " see only the drugs and crime in Yonkers ", that " They dont see the hardworking people in the community ". And with none of these observations do I neccessarily disagree. As someone else noted, " There's something going on that needs to be addressed.... " . And with this observation I totally agree. But I also totally disagree with what people in the minority commu- nity are quoted as saying IS the problem. Having spent nearly 20 years as a Criminal and Family Court defense attorney in the south Bronx,Yonkers and elsewhere,I know what I'm talking about when I say that the real problem in Yonkers is a result of the scatter-brained idea that men and women,boys and girls are the same -are " equal ",in legal terminology. For they are not,never have been and never will be. And I hope to set out some facts,an analysis and conclusion demonstrating how I see things and how I say we need to act to properly address our real problems,in Yonkers,nationally and in the wide world. The New York Times ( 8-31-07,p.b2 ) notes that there are 8 legal actions and a federal inquiry concerning and about " allegations of discrimination and excessive use of force " by the Yonkers Police Dept. About particular allegations,I will wait and see...but generally,many such complaints are little more than a result of re-cycled feminist nonsense that has little relation to present day reality. Prof'. Randolph McLaughlin of Pace Law School in White Plains,N.Y. was interviewed and commented. But one must not forget that Pace is an ultra- liberal feminist redoubt,a law school upholding the nonsense that men and women are equal as well as sheltering and protecting child abusers,pedophiles and other "bent" human beings,mostly men who consider sex with other men and/or boys to be acceptable rather than,as it is, a violation of male honor ( male honor, by the way,is something that feminism has practically destroyed today). " Aggressive policing " has reduced crime in Yonkers to a very low level but it has also led to complaints by people ( as an aside,I mention my friend Karen Edmonson -Yonkers NAACP president- and the very difficult position she is often placed in). The Yonkers Police Dept. (YPD) is accused of using " excessive force " and " using racial slurs and other derogatory language ". In other words, " disrespecting " Yonkers' natives. Such may be true,but it works both ways For there are some in such (and other) areas who " disrespect " the YPD - as well as all police officers ( and not a few such "natives" are not minorities,but are rich and ultra-liberal feminists of the Pace Law School crowd ). Moreover,police forces are not feminist goody-goody gladhanding enterprises such as the feminists would make them -nor would we want them to be so. And,in addition to disrespect for police officers,many of these people disrespect customs and time-honored moral -AND MORALE BUILDING- practices such as marraige between men and women and having,raising and educating children to be good and productive citizens. Having child after child,all out-of-wedlock,all by different fathers -as no father sticks around( often because they spend half their lives in jails where they practice homosexuality and thus bring STDS such as HIV/AIDS to the next woman they " get together/hook up " with when they're released... and most likely also engage in the " down low " on the side,thus infecting both women and men )- really creates an ISOLATED world,one that "disrespects" the other,mostly hardworking ( including other minority people) world that is the U.S.A.. It has also been noted that 75% of Police Brutality complaints have been filed by people with criminal records -and used to 'using the system' as aided by liberals such as the ACLU or Pace Law School or the feminists.... In addition,Al Sharpton and his group are involved; and I find it hard not to like Al,as I told him in person nearly 20 years ago as I also told him I thought he was 'full of shit' . Even the worst criminals I find that I can like ( not all,of course ). But they,unlike Al Sharpton,have broken the law,however lenient I may think our laws are -per- haps too lenient,even. But the Rev. Al is only a clown who has just buffooned around with the law....even though he gets great publicity for endorsing the femi- nist and ultra-liberal agenda of Pace Law School,the ACLU and other groups I love to hate,even though some of their work is necessary. As for the U. S. Justice Dept.,it is suffering from an excess of the feminist doctrines I am in the process of destroying. There are too many women who think that they are men. Is it any wonder that women cant find "good" men to marry ? The only "men" who these women are attracted to are gays or lesbian butch dykes who use strap-ons... and these "men" aint men. And I'm not the only one who has seen what I have seen. Black poet Ishmael Reed has said that " feminists pose the most serious threat to African-American men since the Klan " ,that there will always be " conflicts between nations, cultures,religions ( even though,as he said, "all roads lead to God" ),classes, races and genders ". " Justice For All " ( Daily News book review,p.22,5-28-07 ) is a book written by a do-gooder in the Bronx Criminal and Family Courts,a Legal Aid Society lawyer. It is about those Courts,the south Bronx and how bankrupt the system is ( the poor boy should have read " Bonfire of the Vanities " : Tom Wolfe's book is an excellent depiction of the realities in the south Bronx and it might have helped him to grow up; I was a practicing lawyer during the period Tom Wolfe wrote about,so I know ). But Yonkers and the Bronx are not all that different...as a matter of fact,in some ways they are identical. N.Y.Times columnist Bob Herbert is a supurb chronicler of the seedier sides of N.Y.C.,especially when these involve minority people ( although he just wrote an excellent piece on prostitution in Las Vegas ). But Bob Herbert is terribly biased by his insistence that only the feminist and ultra-liberal way of looking at things is correct. So I mostly disagree with his conclusions (see below). Our police-minority problems are similar,in some ways,to the problems the wide world has with Islamist (and other) terrorists. The Financial Times (7-7/8-07) asks why young men become suicide terrorist bombers. And part of the answer is the hopelessness of their lives (ask Bob Herbert about the hopelessness of some young black men),identity problems,generational problems,perso- nal and cultural dislocation/alienation...all leading to the creation of ISOLATED worlds that have no relation to the reality that is. And such is often what happens amoung disaffected minorities -just listen to Rap music. Bob Herbert ( NYTimes,p.A17,6-30-07 ) wrote " When Enough is Enough " about public schools,prisons and unemployed black men in parts of NYC. But he could have been writing about Yonkers,as well. He said that " young African- American men are convinced they are going to die or go to prison " and that they " have no hope ". And that,therefor,they embark on lives of crime... That charming clown and buffoon,the Reverend Al Sharpton -cant you just picture him as the minister/politician of Tom Wolfe's " Bonfire of the Vanities " who gets "donations..." to engage in "crowd control " ? - is more and more be- coming engaged in Yonkers' politics. So be prepared for more of his shennigans in Yonkers just before the elections. But the funny thing is that,because of immi- gration,the USA is becoming less and less white and the new political equations will no longer be burdened with feminist and ultra-liberal "white guilt". So the Rev. Al and his motley crew of feminists,gays,lesbians,animal rights nuts and other amoral dingbats and wingnuts,skells,ex-cons filing police-brutality complaints and other degenerate men,women,he-shes... better get wise. On 6-28-07,The Journal News (p, 7A) reported that a suspect in the riots in Yonkers in the beginning of the summer ran from the YPD at first and,when caught,pulled a loaded gun on the officers. Bob Herbert ( p.A21,NYTimes,about the Bushwick incident) wrote " Doubting the Police ",saying " I do not like what the police did to these kids ". But Bob was not on the scene - nor does he know anything about riots and crowd control. When a cop said " We are trying to defuse a situation ",Bob should have investigated the situation ( or read the U.S. Dept. of Justice/FBI report on the U.S. urban riots in the summer of 1964; see below ) before he came out in his knee-jerk feminist and ultra-liberal mode to attack the NYPD. According to the above noted FBI report (dated 9-18-1964) on urban riots (for "urban",think Bushwick,Brooklyn,NYC),about 7 major US city riots,including Newark and NYC, there was " an ominous surge of a mass of violent people bent on destruction spreading through the streets ",that " inaccurate charges of police brutality" in the media made it far worse and that " riots usually followed ordinary arrests and altercations involving drunks,hoodlums or common criminals..." and that " police restraint (often because the police were afraid of the usually inaccurate reporting of such as Bob Herbert and worse problems that could be sparked -as well as losing their jobs for doing the best they could in an impossible situation; in truth they were afraid that if they took " action deemed neccessary,they would be pilloried by civilians unfamiliar with the necessities of mob control ") led to situations getting ever-worse. And large numbers of report- ers and TV cameras resulted in ever-more violence... " It has been written that we " must stop subsidizing welfare's 'culture' of illegiti- macy ". During the 1960's,feminism (and Hillary Clinton) triumphed,but " every- thing started to go wrong for inner city black families ", Bill Raspberry,Herald Statesman,p.31A,11-23-1993, " and much of the harm was done by those who only meant to help (feminists and other ultra-liberals with less than half a brain) ". And this is another illustration of how good intentions can -and often do- produce bad/terrible results. Another way of putting it is that the law of unintended conse- quences is far more powerful than anyone thinks... And for those with less than half a brain -such as feminists and the crowd at Pace Law School ? Its no won- der that the human race is on the brink of destruction with them in charge. The Financial Times (7-7/8-07) discusses the Mongol Tamurlane,the last successful world conqueror bent on creating a "global" empire. Perhaps it is time for a new Tamurlane to arise to unite the world and save the human race. As I see it,(1) survival comes first [because without survival,there could be nothing else,no] (2)contentment/comparison within the (3) motion/change that is the world as it really is (the 'eternal' present). And for this to happen,it might very well be neccessary to revive (4) polygamy to give women (at least the feminists) something to do other than destroy the world with feminism and ultra-liberalism such as the crowd of ivory tower schmucks at Pace Law School do. 9:09 PM Delete

One of my favorite garments was a surplus Navy collar-less flak jacket. Problem was, it belonged to somebody else and proved impossible to steal.

This here could turn out to be a bit of a problem, picking up on other people's peeves, which turns out to be not so funny when they get blurted out in ordinary conversation.

The people who discovered aluminum get to be the people who dictate how to pronounce it and that turns out to be al, as in alfalfa, you, as in, "Hey, you two ewes over there!", and minium, rhymes with minimum.

Simon, that "ThinkProgress" link is hilarious. One of the first comments basically agrees with Bin Laden but tempers it in that nuanced "progressive" way by calling Bin Laden's methods "a bit harsh".

You ain't f**king kidding, Mary. Bin Laden spoon feeds the dupes their regurgitated pablum and they lap it up. I suppose there would be a certain, grim satisfaction in watching American "progressives" live under the laws of the Caliph. Hey, it could be a new reality television show.

Wait. Did I miss something in the last few days? Wasn't it the liberals giving UBL such a vaunted perch, as in "we dropped the ball in Tora Bora" and "I'll bomb our allies to get him"? Now that the archfiend looks kind of dopey quoting The Nation talking points and stroking his Grecian Formula beard, TPM is scolding...whom, the Dems?

there are a couple of points he makes that clearly are not Dimicrat talking points, e.g.

1) Iraq is the main front of the struggle between the forces of Allah and the crusaders...

- 2) The West is weak and will cut and run under pressure

"lucky" is obviously an illiterate!

1)Every "leftist" I have ever read says that we have simply emboldened and/or "encouraged" recruitment into Al Queda- solely due to our 'occupation'- (see also 'Bin Laden channeling Dennis Kucinich' in his latest 'mix')- which seems to imply that Iraq might actually BE a 'main front' in the "ideological war" against Islam...

WHY should we choose to 'back down'- NOW?

2)You can't really be this "dumb"?

The "Left" has encouraged the "cut & run" for more than two years!

Name ANY any Dem (besides Joe L)-- that will ensure that our troops will be staying... as long as is necessary!-------------------------------

BTW -How many "recordings" has 'Tupac' released--- after he died?

Meanwhile, you also seem to believe a dialysis patient living in a cave for the last 6 years is still alive- and somehow getting healthier...

Much of the left -- MoveOn, Chomsky, Michael Moore, et al -- have been encouraging it for a lot longer than that. They didn't even want us attacking *Afghanistan*, for pity's sake, because that would only "encourage" the terrorists.

i would agree that the pretentiousness seemed to come from you, not josh. my 1973 webster's new collegiate dictionary also lists flack as a variation of flak.

by the way...

pretentiousness

noun1. lack of elegance as a consequence of being pompous and puffed up with vanity [syn: ostentation] 2. the quality of being pretentious (behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth) [ant: unpretentiousness]

John Stodder said..."Sorry to have to correct everyone but "flack" is derived from "flak." It's a misspelling of "flak" that has crept into common usage. PR people (I used to be one for many years) fall into two categories: Drummers and Flak-catchers. Drummers get attention for the client. Flak-catchers deflect negative attention (i.e. "flak") away from the client."

"Most people in PR are convinced 'flack' was an offshoot of 'flak,' the acronym for Germany's World War II antiaircraft gun. Actually, 'flack' was initially meant in the most favorable sense: Variety started using it in the '20s and '30s as a sort of homage to Gene Flack, who was very, very good at promoting films."

That was very funny. What did you say to future employers about why you were fired?

7:42 PM

Mort, there is a difference between being fired off a job as a contractor and being fired FROM a job as a direct employee.

Any consultant that hasn't been fired or at least gone toe to toe over a fix to a firm's problems with the in-house people is just a bootlicking whore hired to empathize and assure the people that do the hiring that everything is fine....feel good about things...Hired guns expect it. Best one ever, besides the Flounder incident, was the VP of Ops in one firm taking us out to lunch for "brilliant work so far" then the CEO firing all 6 of us at the end of the day. Colleague: "If I'd only known, I would have ordered the double lobster"...Exception being big bucks technical or engineering consultants where the conventional MGMT wisdom is to treat them as Gods.

"i would agree that the pretentiousness seemed to come from you, not josh. my 1973 webster's new collegiate dictionary also lists flack as a variation of flak."

i also like when someone who apparently never heard of capital letters pedantically criticizes someone else for usage errors. it's funny.

I hate to be pedantic myself, but I looked up "flack" and "flak" in my 1971 Oxford English Dictionary. The latter doesn't appear in my edition of the OED. The former does appear. All of the definitions relate to either flapping or fluttering (this sense first appears in English literature in 1393 in Gower's "Confessio Amantis". The other sense of "flack" relates to agriculture: beating (grain) with a flail or raking. So using the expression "taking a lot of flack" is correct in the sense that it connotes being beaten or taking blows from people for some infraction or transgression in speech. I think that both of these senses of the word "flack" are disappearing (or have already disappeared), but from a semi-archaic standpoint you can get away with using the phrase "taking a lot of flack".

And now we see, once again, why the left is so against wiretapping foreign terrorists while they're communicate with their domestic fifth-column useful idiots; They don't want the NSA listening in on the bin Laden / Dean / Chávez / Assad / Putin / Jong-il / Ahmadinejad conference calls.

i wasn't so much criticizing ann for usage errors. i was criticizing her for being pretentious.

and...hmm. pedantic? "overly concerned with minute details"? "characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules"? pedantic, i think, would apply to ann's original post about FLACK as well!

Plenty of bloggers with small audiences write very well and convey subtle thinking.

Thank you.

Marvelous fisking of Marshall on both substance and style -- and aren't they more than coincidentally related!

However, I have to disagree with you about "gainsay." Of course, I am not a lawyer and haven't been gagged by the legal-jargon use of the word. But it is really a very lovely Anglo-Saxonism. You know, the Germans did not want their language Latinized, so I think they deliberately went through and translated a lot of the useful Latinate abstractions -- which are really originally concrete metaphors ("de-liberate" actually means "to weigh") -- into Germanic roots. English, on the contrary, kept both -- I remember a college-freshman-English example of how Shakespeare used the textures of those two very different vocabularies within English: "the multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ making the green one red."

"Gainsay" means precisely the same as "contra-dict." "Gain" as in "against." I hear yeoman homeliness in the word rather than law-professor bombast.

And when you get through with "flak" and "flack" (thank you! thank you!), maybe you could separate the hordes from their hoards? Or get people to stop pouring over those manuscripts -- the ink is going to run.

Of course, you yourself have been known to tow the line. (Which I guess they did on the Erie Canal.)

Flack"publicity or press agent," 1946, said to have been coined in show biz magazine "Variety" (but this is not the first attested use), supposedly from name of Gene Flack, a movie agent, but influenced by flak (q.v.).

Veteran local flack Wes Pedersen, who describes himself as "an unbelievably young 83," will be inducted today into the Washington chapter of the Public Relations Society of America's Hall of Fame -- an event we learned about, naturally, via a release from the honoree himself. The theme of the event, he says, is "I Am Not a Flack," but Pedersen, communications and PR director at the Public Affairs Council, begs to differ.

"I've never cared one damn bit about being called a flack," declares Pedersen, who flacked for his country at the U.S. Information Agency during the Cold War. "Matter of fact, it's a bit of a compliment. Most people in PR are convinced 'flack' was an offshoot of 'flak,' the acronym for Germany's World War II antiaircraft gun. Actually, 'flack' was initially meant in the most favorable sense: Variety started using it in the '20s and '30s as a sort of homage to Gene Flack, who was very, very good at promoting films."

I'm not sure that Pedersen is correct about it being meant in the "most favorable sense" (ahem). And I think Flack starting promoting movies a bit later than Pedersen implies.

Prior to Flack becoming a movie publicist, he worked for IGA (public relations director) and came up with the "alliance" part of the Independent Grocers Alliance, in 1926.

I know Marshall's work well. When I read Marshall's work I know what he's talking about and enjoy the reading experience and depth of knowledge and skepticism he brings to issues. Not so much with Althouse.

Flak/flack is about conservatives making a mountain out of a minor spelling error. No doubt Josh knows all about flak, flacks and hacks.

Josh does write intelligently, using terms that may not be currently in vogue, but that have been used over time. Literate people can be that way. Whoop-de-fricken-do.

Josh's core point remains sidestepped by Althouse: - OBL is a nutjob. (I add that great nations should not be cowered by nutjobs.)

- George Bush is al Qaeda's best publicist. He constantly pumps up AQ. Bush and bin Laden need each other because they both need the "war."

Again, the Althouse schtick. She ignores the content of Bush critics' arguments and attacks them on style grounds. Annie the Bush Enabler.

Yeah, Alpha, Bush is constantly pumping Al Queda. He's always saying that we need to send thousands of troops into Afghanistan to "finish the job" and that we should ignore Iraq. He's constantly yammering that we are not facing down the real enemy -- Osama and Al Queda -- but that we are in the middle of a civil war somewhere else.

"...I'm sure I'll catch flack for taking such a mocking attitude toward this man who has so much American blood on his hands. But this, I think, is only the flip side of the vaunted perch we insist on giving him, a insistence that is a paradoxical part of Bushism. They are tacit partners in creating the world in which we now live."

Could anyone explain what Marshall means by "But this"?

and how does "but this" result in it being the "flip side of the vaunted perch"?

And an "insistence" on what? And how is "it" a "paradoxical part of Bushism"? And what is "Bushism, exactly"?

Not trying to attack him, I just don't understand what he is trying to say.

You spend 480 words decrying the verbosity of Marshall's 280 word post. Complaining that Marshall is not writing in a "modern" style, you use the words "fusty" and "jocose." Personally, I don't mind long posts (not that Marshall's was) or the use of older terms. But to the extent that you feel these are valid criticisms, they apply equally well--if not more so--to your own writing.

AlphaLiberal said..."WTF? Ann Althouse lecturing Josh Marshall on writing? Get a grip, lady. I know Marshall's work well. When I read Marshall's work I know what he's talking about and enjoy the reading experience and depth of knowledge and skepticism he brings to issues. Not so much with Althouse."

Well, of course, you know what Marshall is talking about. He's saying what you expect him to say and what you already agree with. The dense incoherence is easy to read for that reason. And why don't you understand me? Because I'm exactly the opposite. It doesn't speak well of you, little man.

benj: You're just name-calling. If you think you can critique my writing, be specific. I was specific about Josh Marshall and could have said much more. You haven't said anything worthwhile, and everyone with any sense will just assume you don't like me because you don't like my politics. Now, substantiate your opinion or apologize.

Caliban said..."You spend 480 words decrying the verbosity of Marshall's 280 word post. Complaining that Marshall is not writing in a "modern" style, you use the words "fusty" and "jocose." Personally, I don't mind long posts (not that Marshall's was) or the use of older terms. But to the extent that you feel these are valid criticisms, they apply equally well--if not more so--to your own writing.

Ditto.

The "Queen" L-O-V-E-S to read her own bullshit...and she's not real big on criticism.

Sadly, it would appear it's pretty much the usual sort, just like it's the usual sort who use blackface to connote subservience and who think that a 17 year old getting tongue tied on national TV tells us a lot about her politics.

FLAK is the proper spelling of the incoming antiaircraft fire. There is no alternative. Any book saying so is in error. Return it to the publisher. Or burn it.

This insistence in splitting every hair on your heads to defend Marshall's tortured prose ("vaunted perch" sucks too, BTW) recalls the line delivered by Robert Shaw to Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws (as treated at http://www.jabootu.com/jaws.htm):

This leads to one of the film’s neatest little scenes. Quint has hooked something big on a piano wire line. Quint thinks it’s the shark; Hooper is equally sure it’s a marlin or other sport fish. He follows Quint’s orders but is clearly relishing an opportunity to prove Quint wrong about something. However, the unseen fish escapes when it bites through the nearly unbreakable line.

Quint shoves the severed wire in Hooper’s face and orders him "not to tell me my business again." Hooper sullenly responds that the broken line doesn’t prove anything. "Well, it proves one thing, Mr. Hooper," a now clearly pissed-off Quint replies. "It proves that you wealthy college boys don’t have enough education to admit when you’re wrong." So saying, Quint turns his back on him and stalks off.

This is when Hooper sticks his tongue out at the retreating Quint. However, the interesting thing is that it’s Hooper who’s in the wrong. The broken line clearly validates Quint’s belief that he had hooked the shark, and Hooper knows it. What’s nice is the way Hooper’s attempts to prove Quint wrong end up with Hooper backing into the very stereotypes he’s trying to overcome. It’s also another instance of the film providing its protagonists with realistic yet not fanciful flaws, so as to keep them grounded and more believable.

Anyone who criticizes another's inaccuracy has a special burden to be accurate herself. Flak is NOT "WW II airman's slang for shells being fired at you in the air." Rather, it's an acronym that became the official product name of the guns that were firing those shells. Krupp, the German armaments manufacturer, produced a line of Fl(ieger)a(bwehr)-K(anone) (meaning "antiaircraft guns"), which they sold under the catchy name of FlaK 18, FlaK 36, FlaK 37 and FlaK 88, depending on whether the bore was 16, 36, 37 or 88 mm.

The "flak" designation was coined by the German ordnance bureau, not Krupp. Rheinmetall-Borsig manufactured 20mm, 37mm, 50mm, 105mm, and 128mm "FLieger Abwehr Kanonen"; Krupp made only the 88mm. The designation "Flak NN" indicated the year of adoption, not the caliber: there were 88mm models 18, 37, and 41, and 37mm models 18, 36, 37, and 43, for instance.

Been busy over the weekend, but I see that you guys spent a lot of time over what Libs know was an unimportant typo.

Now, when Quale misspelled "potato", that was important & deserving of time spent to show that Conservatives & Republicans are stupid whereas Liberals & Democrats are smart.

And the "Bushism of that Day", that is a compilation of remarks made by Bush 43 which contained, as do much off-the-cuff remarks, some lapses in grammar or pronunciation? Why, what's your problem? Pointing that out was important, because once again it shows that we Libs are the smart ones & Election 2000 was stolen, see?

And those parodies of Ike giving a bumbling Washington's farewell to the troops speech or giving a rambling Gettysburg Address? Well, yet once more, those were important necessary & appropriate comments on the general illiteracy of Republicans & how the American booboisie foolishly voted for him over urbane, sophisticated, witty Adlai.

PS. Someone commented, correctly, that Dictionaries now list as a second definition of flack, "var of flak. This is because such works have lowered their standards.